ship between time and space arises. Secondly, many emergency
situations, such as fires, are dynamic situations. They are timede-
pendent and the situation will evolve and change regardless of if
a fire brigade is present or not. Moreover, the emergency’s course
of events is guided by physical laws – they are in various ways
physical processes. These dynamic and physical processes are to
be dealt with using another dynamic process, decision making,
which can largely be said to be a mental process. Lastly, one must
be aware of differences in time scales. Decisions that are made
on different levels, based on different authorities, have varying
degrees of repercussions in time and space – they have different
time scales. But even the actual emergency can have different
time scales, for example, in different geographic sectors or under
different phases of an emergency response operation.
Also note that dynamic decision making even involves the deci-
sion maker taking consideration to any consequences of decisions
in the future in ample time. Once can call this proactive behavi-
our, i.e. that one is at the leading edge of decision making.
Beyond these timerelated limitations, there are also a num-
ber of delays that will affect decision making, such as the delay
between a decision on a certain measure and the effect that the
measure produces. Another example can be the delay that occurs
in conjunction with situational reporting and in allocating tasks.
All actions and decisions take time, and during the intervening
period other things will occur, regardless of whether one wants
them to or not.
Experts and novices
Experts and novices do not fundamentally differ in the method of
making decisions. There are differences, however, in how they as-
sess situations, i.e. how experts and novices gather and process
information that customarily results in a decision (Klein, 1998).
That which is characteristic for experts in their manner of rea-
soning their way to solutions and decisions is that they have the
ability to create overviews and to see the large and more compre-
hensive problems first, and that they see patterns in these pro-
blems and in conceivable solutions. On can also mention ‘tricks
of the trade’ and experts’ perceptual abilities, i.e. an instinctive
feel for the situation and for details that can have a major impact
on the decision. This is normally based on reasonably solid expe-
rience. Experts also often have an ability to discover anomalies,
i.e. things that deviate from the norm.